Generating a data stream with configurable compression

ABSTRACT

One example method includes receiving a mixed data stream that was created using a first data stream and a second data stream, the mixed data stream having a compressibility of N, where N is a compressibility merging parameter, and the mixed data stream has a compressibility that is between a compressibility of the first data stream and a compressibility of the second data stream, providing the mixed data stream to an application and/or hardware, observing and recording a response of the application and/or hardware to the mixed data stream, and analyzing the response of the response of the application and/or hardware to the mixed data stream.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to: U.S. Pat. No. 10,038,733 (Ser. No. 14/489,317, filed Sep. 17, 2014), entitled GENERATING A LARGE, NON-COMPRESSIBLE DATA STREAM, issued Jul. 31, 2018; U.S. Pat. No. 10,114,832 (Ser. No. 14/489,363, filed Sep. 17, 2014), entitled GENERATING A DATA STREAM WITH A PREDICTABLE CHANGE RATE, issued Oct. 30, 2018; and, U.S. Pat. No. 10,114,850 (Ser. No. 14/489,295, filed Sep. 17, 2014), entitled DATA STREAM GENERATION USING PRIME NUMBERS, issued Oct. 30, 2018. This application is also related to: United States patent application (Ser. No. 16/389,729), entitled GENERATING A DATA STREAM WITH CONFIGURABLE CHANGE RATE AND CLUSTERING CAPABILITY, filed the same day herewith; United States patent application (Ser. No. 16/389,700), entitled GENERATING A DATA STREAM WITH CONFIGURABLE COMMONALITY, filed the same day herewith; United States patent application (Ser. No. 16/389,741), entitled GENERATING AND MORPHING A COLLECTION OF FILES IN A FOLDER/SUB-FOLDER STRUCTURE THAT COLLECTIVELY HAS DESIRED DEDUPABILITY, COMPRESSION, CLUSTERING AND COMMONALITY, filed the same day herewith; U.S. Pat. No. 10,163,371, (Ser. No. 15/420,633, filed Jan. 31, 2017), entitled ROTATING BIT VALUES BASED ON A DATA STRUCTURE WHILE GENERATING A LARGE, NON-COMPRESSIBLE DATA STREAM, issued Dec. 25, 2018; and, U.S. Pat. No. 10,235,134 (Ser. No. 15/420,614, filed Jan. 31, 2017), entitled ROTATING BIT VALUES WHILE GENERATING A LARGE, NON-COMPRESSIBLE DATA STREAM, issued Mar. 19, 2019. All of the aforementioned patents and applications are incorporated herein in their respective entireties by this reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to generation of data streams having various attributes. More particularly, at least some embodiments of the invention relate to systems, hardware, software, computer-readable media, and methods for generating data streams whose compression is configurable.

BACKGROUND

Developers and other personnel often have a need to simulate characteristics of real world data streams that are generated by applications that are in a developmental stage. Simulation of real world data stream characteristics, such as compressibility for example, enables the developer to identify and correct any problems, and enhance performance of the application, before the application, or a revision of the application, is rolled out.

Various algorithms have been developed for generation of data streams. However data streams generated by these algorithms may be relatively narrow in terms of their applicability and usefulness. This may be due to various factors. For example, the speed with which such streams are generated may not be adequate. As another example, data streams generated by such algorithms may be incompressible. Further, such data streams may not be deduplicatable. These, and other, factors may tend to limit the effectiveness, in some applications, of the data streams produced by some data stream generation algorithms.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to describe the manner in which at least some of the advantages and features of the invention can be obtained, a more particular description of embodiments of the invention will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, embodiments of the invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 discloses aspects of an example operating environment for some embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 2 discloses aspects of an example host configuration.

FIG. 3 discloses some general aspects of a configuration in which one or more incompressible data streams are mixed with one or more compressible data streams to generate a mixed data stream of a particular compressibility.

FIGS. 3a-3g disclose an example portion of an incompressible data stream.

FIGS. 4a-4d disclose examples of ways in which multiple data streams can be combined to create an output data stream having a particular compressibility.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram that discloses some general aspects of a method for generating mixed data streams.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SOME EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to generation of data streams having various attributes. More particularly, at least some embodiments of the invention relate to systems, hardware, software, computer-readable media, and methods for generating data streams whose compression is configurable. The data in a given data stream may be referred to herein as a dataset.

More particularly, example embodiments of the invention employ data stream mixing to generate a data stream having particular compression properties. Depending upon the implementation, two, or more, data streams may be mixed. The resulting data stream created by the mixing of two or more data streams may be used in a variety of applications. To illustrate, such a resulting, or synthesized, data stream may be used in applications where high speed generation of a data stream, having particular compression properties, is needed for automated and/or manual testing of an application, hardware, and/or other elements. Example data streams may be generated at rates exceeding 1 GBPS. In at least some embodiments, compressible streams, and incompressible data streams, can be generated by the methods and systems disclosed in one or more of the Related Applications.

One of the data streams that is to be mixed with one or more other data streams may have a compressibility of about 0%, although that is not required. Examples of such data streams, and methods for generating them, are disclosed in one or more of the Related Applications noted herein. Additionally, or alternatively, one of the data streams that is to be mixed with one or more other data streams may have a compressibility of about 100%, although that is not required.

In some embodiments, multiple data streams are mixed together to generate a new data stream having a particular compressibility. Where any two or more data streams are mixed together, the respective data of the data streams may be interleaved, such as on a data block, data sequence, or other, basis, to form the new data stream. Finally, the data streams can be mixed in a variety of ways, such as clustered, uniform, random, or normalized mixing.

Advantageously then, embodiments of the invention may provide various benefits and improvements relative to the configuration and operation of conventional hardware, software, systems and methods. For example, an embodiment of the invention enables customization of a data stream to meet testing, analytical, and diagnostic needs in a computing environment. As well, an embodiment of the invention enables generation of a data stream having a particular, ‘non-zero,’ compressibility. Further, an embodiment of the invention enables generation of data stream having a particular commonality with respect to respective data streams generated by computing entities in a population of computing entities. The compressibility feature helps to simulate data that is partly compressible, which is a common data type in many applications. The commonality feature helps to simulate data that is common across multiple groups of owners. This is useful in the context of deduplication engines and processes, which need to be both effective and efficient in their deduplication operations. Moreover, the flexibility of embodiments of the invention enable generation of data streams specifically suited for performance of customized testing, analytical, and diagnostic, processes in a computing environment. Among other things, such embodiments enable the identification of areas where improvements may be made in the operation of an application and/or computing system hardware and other software.

It should be noted that the foregoing advantageous aspects of various embodiments are presented only by way of example, and various other advantageous aspects of example embodiments of the invention will be apparent from this disclosure. It is further noted that it is not necessary that any embodiment implement or enable any of such advantageous aspects disclosed herein.

A. Aspects of an Example Operating Environment

The following is a discussion of aspects of example operating environments for various embodiments of the invention. This discussion is not intended to limit the scope of the invention, or the applicability of the embodiments, in any way.

In general, embodiments of the invention may be implemented in connection with systems, software, and components, that individually and/or collectively implement, and/or cause the implementation of, data generation and data management operations. Such data management operations may include, but are not limited to, data read/write/delete operations, data deduplication operations, data backup operations, data restore operations, data cloning operations, data archiving operations, and disaster recovery operations. Thus, while the discussion herein may, in some aspects, be directed to a discussion of data protection environments and operations, the scope of the invention is not so limited. More generally then, the scope of the invention embraces any operating environment in which the disclosed concepts may be useful. In some instances, embodiments of the invention generate data streams for use in testing systems and applications in various environments, one example of which is a data protection environment.

A data protection environment, for example, may take the form of a public or private cloud storage environment, an on-premises storage environment, and hybrid storage environments that include public and private elements, although the scope of the invention extends to any other type of data protection environment as well. Any of these example storage environments, may be partly, or completely, virtualized. The storage environment may comprise, or consist of, a datacenter which is operable to service read and write operations initiated by one or more clients.

In addition to the storage environment, the operating environment may also include one or more host devices, such as clients for example, that each host one or more applications. As such, a particular client may employ, or otherwise be associated with, one or more instances of each of one or more applications that generate data that is desired to be protected. In general, the applications employed by the clients are not limited to any particular functionality or type of functionality. Some example applications and data include email applications such as MS Exchange, filesystems, as well as databases such as Oracle databases, and SQL Server databases. The applications on the clients may generate new and/or modified data that is desired to be protected.

Any of the devices, including the clients, servers and hosts, in the operating environment can take the form of software, physical machines, or virtual machines (VM), or any combination of these, though no particular device implementation or configuration is required for any embodiment. Similarly, data protection system components such as databases, storage servers, storage volumes (LUNs), storage disks, replication services, backup servers, restore servers, backup clients, and restore clients, for example, can likewise take the form of software, physical machines or virtual machines (VM), though no particular component implementation is required for any embodiment. Where VMs are employed, a hypervisor or other virtual machine monitor (VMM) can be employed to create and control the VMs.

As used herein, the term ‘data’ is intended to be broad in scope. Thus, that term embraces, by way of example and not limitation, data segments such as may be produced by data stream segmentation processes, data chunks, data blocks, atomic data, emails, objects of any type, files, contacts, directories, sub-directories, volumes, and any group of one or more of the foregoing.

Example embodiments of the invention are applicable to any system capable of storing and handling various types of objects, in analog, digital, or other form. Although terms such as document, file, block, or object may be used by way of example, the principles of the disclosure are not limited to any particular form of representing and storing data or other information. Rather, such principles are equally applicable to any object capable of representing information.

With particular attention now to FIG. 1, one example of an operating environment is denoted generally at 100. In some embodiments, the operating environment may comprise, or consist of, a data protection environment. The operating environment can include an enterprise datacenter, or a cloud datacenter, or both. The data protection environment may support various data protection processes, including data replication, data deduplication, cloning, data backup, and data restoration, for example. As used herein, the term backups is intended to be construed broadly and includes, but is not limited to, partial backups, incremental backups, full backups, clones, snapshots, continuous replication, and any other type of copies of data, and any combination of the foregoing. Any of the foregoing may, or may not, be deduplicated.

In the illustrated example, the operating environment 100 may include any type and number of data generators 102, 104 and 106. In general, the data generators 102 . . . 106 may be any software, hardware, or combination of software and hardware, that is operable to generate data. The software may, in some embodiments, comprise, or consist of, one or more applications, and the applications may be of any type. Thus, in some cases, one or more of the data generators 102 . . . 106 may comprise a client device that hosts one or more applications. The data generated by a data generator may, or may not, be targeted for protection and backed up, such as at a cloud datacenter for example. In some embodiments, one, some, or all, of the data generators 102 . . . 106 may comprise a purpose-built entity, which may comprise hardware and/or software, specifically configured to generate incompressible data streams and/or compressible data streams.

As further indicated in FIG. 1, the operating environment 100 may include a mixer 108. In general, the mixer 108 is operable to combine data streams from the data generators 102 . . . 106 so as to create a new data stream. Each new data stream created by the mixer 108 can be generated in such a way as to have particular compression attributes.

The operation of the mixer 108 may be configurable via various parameters, and these parameters may help to shape the properties of the output data stream. These parameters of an output data stream created by the mixer 108 may be specified, for example, by a user using a user interface (UI) 108 a and/or application program interface (API) associated with the mixer 108. The UI may be any type of user interface including, but not limited to, a graphical user interface (GUI), or a command line interface (CLI). The mixer 108 can then use the user input to generate a new data stream by mixing two or more input data streams. User inputs provided by way of the UI, and/or other mechanism, may include, but are not limited to, any one or more of: the amount of data of the output stream; one or more self seeds; one or more base seeds; the identity of the source data streams; the identity of the data generators; a desired commonality factor (CF); a respective compressibility parameter for each source data stream; and, a desired compressibility parameter for the data stream generated by the mixer 108. In an embodiment, the mixer 108 may combine multiple data streams from each of a plurality of respective sources, such as from the data generators 102 . . . 106 for example.

The mixer 108 may be implemented as hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. In some embodiments, the mixer 108 takes the form of an application that may be hosted on a server, or any other type of host device. The mixer 108 may reside at a user premises, at a cloud datacenter, and/or at any other site. In some embodiments, the mixer 108 may be an element of another system or device, such as a deduplication server for example. Thus, in such embodiments, an output data stream generated by the mixer 108 may then be deduplicated by the deduplication server. However, the mixer 108 need not be an element of a deduplication server and, in other embodiments, the output data stream generated by the mixer 108 may be provided to a deduplication server for deduplication.

With continued reference to FIG. 1, the mixer 108 may constitute an element of, or communicate with, a test environment 109. The test environment 109 may include, for example, one or more applications 110 and/or one or more hardware devices 112. In general, the data streams generated by the mixer 108 may be provided by the mixer 108 to an application 110 and/or hardware device 112 for testing, analysis, and/or diagnostic, operations. Such data streams may, or may not, be deduplicated before being provided to the test environment 109.

More particularly, the data streams generated by the mixer 108 may be provided to, and utilized by, an application 110 and/or hardware device 112. The outputs and/or other responses of the application 110 and/or hardware 112 can then be provided to an evaluation module 114 for analysis and diagnostics. In some embodiments, the evaluation module 114 is an element of the mixer 108. In other embodiments however, the evaluation module 114 is separate and distinct from the mixer 108.

By generating data streams using inputs from one or more data generators, the mixer 108 enables the testing of application 110 and/or hardware 112 so that analyses may be performed, and solutions identified for any problems observed. The flexibility of embodiments with respect to customizing the commonality and/or compressibility of data streams generated by the mixer 108 enables a wide variety of test and evaluation scenarios to mimic, or replicate, real world conditions.

B. Example Host and Server Configurations

With reference briefly now to FIG. 2, any one or more of the data generators 102 . . . 106, mixer 108, test platform 109, applications 110, hardware 112, evaluation module 114, entity 306, and mixer 308, can take the form of, or include, or be implemented on, or hosted by, a physical computing device, one example of which is denoted at 200. As well, where any of the aforementioned elements comprise or consist of a virtual machine (VM), that VM may constitute a virtualization of any combination of the physical components disclosed in FIG. 2.

In the example of FIG. 2, the physical computing device 200 includes a memory 202 which can include one, some, or all, of random access memory (RAM), non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) 204, read-only memory (ROM), and persistent memory, one or more hardware processors 206, non-transitory storage media 208, UI device 210, and data storage 212. One or more of the memory components 202 of the physical computing device 200 can take the form of solid state device (SSD) storage. As well, one or more applications 214 are provided that comprise executable instructions. Such executable instructions can take various forms including, for example, instructions executable to perform any method or portion thereof disclosed herein, and/or executable by/at any of a storage site, whether on-premises at an enterprise, or a cloud storage site, client, datacenter, backup server, blockchain network, or blockchain network node, to perform functions disclosed herein. As well, such instructions may be executable to perform any of the other operations disclosed herein including, but not limited to, data stream mixing, data stream evaluation and analysis, data stream generation, read, write, backup, and restore, operations and/or any other data protection operation, auditing operations, cloud service operations.

C. Modified Data Stream with Configurable Compression

Directing attention now to FIG. 3, details are provided concerning systems and processes for generating data streams having a user-configurable compression. In the example 300 of FIG. 3, one or more incompressible data streams 302 are mixed together, or merged, with one or more compressible data streams 304. The data streams may be mixed together in a uniform, random, normalized, or clustered distribution, manner. The extent, if any, to which any particular input and/or output data stream, or data streams, is/are compressible, can be specified by a user or a computing entity. As well, the way, or ways, in which the two or more data streams are mixed together, can be specified by a user or a computing entity. It should be noted that the arrangement 300 disclosed in FIG. 3 is presented only by way of example, and it will be apparent to one having the benefit of this disclosure that the principles disclosed in relation to FIG. 3 are extendible to a variety of other circumstances and configurations as well.

In the particular example of FIG. 3, an incompressible data stream 302 may be generated, such as by a data generator, examples of which are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the incompressible data stream 302 may be generated by an entity 306 specifically configured to generate incompressible data streams. As indicated, the incompressible data stream 302 may be generated based on an initialization parameter that may be referred to as a ‘seed’ or ‘seed value.’ Other example data generators are disclosed in the Related Applications.

The incompressible data stream 302 may be referred to as having a compressibility that is 0%, or about 0%. Thus, the incompressible data stream 302 may comprise, or consist of, a sequence of blocks that are each unique. To illustrate, the incompressible data stream 302 may include the sequence of blocks ‘ABCDEF . . . ’ As this example illustrates, there is, in the sequence, only a single instance of each block. Thus, the sequence ABCDEF of the data stream 302 cannot be compressed since there are no duplicate blocks that can be removed from the sequence to reduce, that is, compress, the size of the sequence. Examples of incompressible data streams, and processes for generating incompressible data streams, are disclosed in one or more of the Related Applications.

On the other hand, the data stream 304 may be partly, or fully, compressible. In the latter case, the data stream 304 may be referred to as having a compressibility that is 100%, or about 100%. Thus, the compressible data stream 304 may comprise, or consist of, a sequence of characters, parts, or other pieces of data, that are all the same. To illustrate, the compressible data stream 304 may include the sequence ‘XXXXXX . . . ’ As this example illustrates, there is, in this sequence, multiple instances of the same character. Thus, the sequence XXXXXX of the data stream 304 is highly compressible, though maybe not 100% compressible, since all the characters in the sequence are duplicates, and nearly all of the duplicate characters can be removed from the sequence to reduce, that is, compress, the size of the sequence. Further examples of data stream compression are discussed below at FIGS. 4a -4 d.

In some embodiments, the data streams 302 and 304 may be produced by the same entity, such as an application hosted by a host device. In other embodiments, the data stream 302 may be generated by a purpose-built entity, which may comprise hardware and/or software, specifically configured to generate incompressible data streams, and the data stream 304 may be produced by a data generator such as is disclosed herein.

With continued reference to FIG. 3, the data streams 302 and 304 may be provided to a mixer 308 which may be similar, or identical, to the mixer 108 disclosed in FIG. 1. As such, the inputs (seed, N) to the mixer 308 are the seed that was used as a basis for generation of the incompressible data stream 302, and ‘N,’ or the percentage of data from the compressible data stream 304 that will be used in the generation of the output stream by the mixer 308. To illustrate with an example, a compressible data stream 310 generated by the mixer 308 may comprise 70% incompressible data from the data stream 302, and 30%, that is, ‘N’ %, data from the data stream 304. The combination, by the mixer 308, of these two data streams results in an output data stream 310 that is 30% compressible. That is, the output data stream 310 may be compressed to 70% of its initial size. As the foregoing example illustrates, the value of ‘N’ can be selected as necessary.

With continued reference to FIG. 3, a further example is illustrative. If ‘N’ is specified to be 33%, such as by a user using a UI in communication with the mixer 308, the data stream 310 generated by the mixer 308 is about 33% compressible. Thus, part of the data in an example output data stream 310 may be supplied by the data stream 302, and the other part of the data in an example output data stream 310 may be supplied by the data stream 304. More generally, any number ‘X’ of input data streams can be mixed together to generate an output data stream, where X is a whole integer 2. An example sequence of the output data stream 310 may include 9 blocks and look like ‘ABXCDXEFX . . . ’, where 6/9 of the blocks (that is, AB, CD, and EF), or about 67% of the data, are taken from the data stream 302, and 3/9 of the blocks (that is X, X, X), or about 33% of the data, are taken from the data stream 304.

D. Configurable Compressibility

The discussion thus far has addressed various concepts concerning the combination of two or more data streams, each having a respective compressibility in a range of about 0% to about 100%, to generate an output data stream with a desired compressibility. In general, a data stream of any degree of compressibility (in a range of about 0% to about 100%) can be generated in connection with embodiments of the invention. That data stream can be generated by mixing two or more data streams in any of a wide variety of different ways which are disclosed herein and/or which would be apparent from this disclosure. As such, the following illustrations of ways in which data streams of desired compressibility can be created are provided only by way of example, and not limitation.

With attention briefly to FIGS. 3a-3g , an example block 300 of data (approximately 8 KB in size) of an incompressible data sequence, is disclosed. The block 300, which can be generated by a data generator, begins on FIG. 3a and ends at the bottom of FIG. 3g . The portions of the block 300 denoted at 302 and 304 are each 128 byte examples that are used for illustrative purposes in the following discussion. In each of the examples of FIGS. 4a-4d , a mixed data stream can include compressible data such as can be provided by way of a data stream such as data stream 304 (FIG. 3), and the mixed data stream can include incompressible data such as can be provided by way of a data stream such as data stream 302 (FIG. 3).

With general reference now to FIGS. 4a-4d , details are provided concerning some specific examples of how multiple data streams can be combined to create an output data stream having a particular compressibility. The examples disclosed in FIGS. 4a-4d can be implemented, for example, by a mixer, embodiments of which are disclosed herein.

Turning next to FIG. 4a , it will be assumed for the purposes of discussion that the example block portions 302 and 304 (see FIG. 3a ), which together comprise 256 bytes, represent respective 8 KB blocks 402 and 404. The example disclosed in FIG. 4b illustrates one way in which a desired level of compressibility can be achieved with respect to the example blocks 402 and 404. As is evident from the blocks 402 and 404, those blocks are incompressible because any sequence of bytes (where a sequence length is 1 or more) does not significantly occur again in those blocks. Thus, if the 256 byte data sequence shown in FIG. 4a were sent to a dedupe engine, the blocks 402 and 404 could not be compressed by the dedupe engine.

In the example of FIG. 4b , however, blocks 402 a and 404 a represent blocks 402 and 404 after a desired compressibility has been introduced. It is assumed for the purposes of illustration that the blocks 402 a and 404 a, when created, should have a compressibility of about 75%, that implementation of the desired compressibility takes place at the block level, and that the blocks are 8 KB in size. It is noted however, a user and/or computing entity, such as a dedupe engine, can specify one or more parameters such as, but not limited to: (i) the block size; (ii) the desired compressibility; and, (iii) the level, block or otherwise, at which compression should be performed. Additional, or alternative, parameters may be considered when compressibility is to be implemented in a data stream.

With continued reference to FIG. 4b , no change is made to the first 32 bytes of the block, and so those bytes remain at the same original offset. However, the remaining 96 bytes of block 402 are replaced with 00, where a 00 refers to a byte that has a value of 0 or in hexadecimals 0x00. The 00 values are located at bytes 33-128, which results in a block 402 b having a compressibility of about 75%. Similarly with regard to block 404 a, and in view of the insertion of 00 values at bytes 33-128, the original values at bytes 33-64 are now re-positioned at a different offset, that is, at bytes 129-160, followed by 00 values at the next 96 bytes. Thus, blocks 402 a and 404 a now each have a compressibility of about a 75%. It will be appreciated that the aforementioned process can be performed repeatedly until an entire data stream, or portion thereof, comprises, or consists of, blocks that are each compressible to the specified extent, 75% in this example.

Turning now to FIG. 4c , a variation of the processes concerning FIG. 4b is disclosed. In general, FIG. 4c discloses the notion that to achieve a desired compressibility at the block, or other level, the compressible portion of the block can be made up of any compressible data. Thus, as indicated in FIG. 4c , the compressible data need not be 00 values. In the example blocks 402 b and 404 b, the compressible data is 41424344 (ABCD) and 45464748 (EFGH), respectively. It can be seen that this data will compress as readily as if 00 values had been used, as in the example of FIG. 4b . It can also be seen that the compressible data used can, but is not required to, be different for different blocks of the same data stream. Thus, the compressible data for block 402 b is 41424344, while the compressible data for block 404 b is 45464748.

As well, and similar to the example of FIG. 4b , the offset of the first 32 bytes of block 402 b is unchanged by the insertion of the compressible data 41424344. However, the original bytes 33-64 are still present, but now positioned at an offset of 129-160 as a result of the insertion of the compressible data 41424344.

In the examples of FIGS. 4b and 4c , compressible data, such as 00 values, or other compressible data such as U.S. Pat. No. 41,424,344 (ABCD) and 45464748 (EFGH), was inserted into the data blocks 402 a, 404 a, 402 b, and 404 b, so as to achieve the desired block level compressibility. In other embodiments, processes other than data insertion can be used to achieve a desired compressibility when generating a mixed data stream. Accordingly, attention is directed now to FIG. 4d , where blocks 402 c and 404 c are disclosed. In this example, compressible data is written over some of the incompressible data, rather than being inserted in the incompressible data, as in the examples of FIGS. 4b and 4 c.

Thus, as indicated in the example of FIG. 4d , and with reference first to block 402 c, compressible data is written over all bytes after the first 32 bytes. Similar to other examples disclosed herein, there is no change to the offset of the first 32 bytes. The effect of the overwrite can be seen more clearly with reference to block 404 c. In block 404 c, compressible data is written over some of the incompressible data, specifically, bytes 33-64. Thus, rather than bytes 33-128 being moved to an offset of 129-160, as occurred when compressible data was inserted (FIGS. 4b and 4c ), those bytes 33-128 are overwritten in the example of FIG. 4d , and the data originally at bytes 129-160 thus remains at the 129-160 offset. Bytes 161-256 of block 404 c are overwritten with compressible data.

E. Example Data Stream Mixing Methodologies

With the foregoing examples in view, it was noted herein that that when two or more data streams are mixed together, the mixing of the data in the two data streams can be performed in various ways. For example, the mixing may be uniform, clustered, random, normalized, or any other mathematical distribution or mix of one or more of these example distributions. The particular mixing process employed can be selected based on the particular circumstances involved. Some examples of these mixing processes are discussed below.

An understanding of some aspects of example mixing processes can be appreciated with reference to an example. Particularly, it is useful in at least some circumstances to keep compression applied to each block that a deduplication (or ‘dedupe’) engine may create. For a dedupe engine that typically creates 8 KB blocks, for example, parts are selected from the 0% and 100% compressibility streams such that their sum is about 8K. So, for a 75% desired compression, 2 KB of data comes from the 0% compressible stream and 6 KB comes from the 100% compressible stream. However, the same result would not be achieved if 250 KB were picked from 0% compressible stream followed by 750 KB from the 100% compressible stream. Thus, the particular way in which data is mixed has implications with respect to the compressibility ultimately achieved in a mixed data stream which includes that data.

For example, a dedupe engine may need a particular average, or overall, compressibility in a data stream, but in this particular case, the compressibility should not always be the same in the data stream. Thus, the compression logic in this example would be configured in such a way that the average compressibility over a larger number of blocks is the desired value, although the compressibility of any given block, or even a group of blocks, may not be the average compressibility.

To illustrate with an example, a mixed data stream might be configured so that 20% of the blocks have a compressibility of 65%, 20% of the blocks have a compressibility of 70%, 20% of the blocks have a compressibility of 75%, 20% of the blocks have a compressibility of 80%, and 20% of the blocks have a compressibility of 90%. This would produce a mixed stream having an average compressibility of 75%, even though only 20% of the blocks have 75% compressibility. This variation, in the mixed data stream, of compressibility may more accurately reflect some real world data streams than would a mixed data stream having blocks that are all 75% compressible. As discussed below, uniform, random, normalized, and clustered, mixing of blocks may determine where, in a sequence of blocks, blocks of different compressibility are created.

For example, one technique for mixing data streams is to uniformly mix, or merge, the data of the constituent streams. For example, if a 100G stream is to have 90% unique data, and 10% common data, a nonuniform mixing of the data is to arrange the data in serial fashion where, for example, the 10% common data is followed by the 90% unique data, or vice versa. In contrast, a uniform mixing of the data might take the form, for example, of data arranged in the mixed data stream thus: 1 MB (common), 9 MB (unique), 1 MB (common), 9 MB (unique) . . . until a mixed data stream of 100 GB is defined. In this way, the common data and the unique data are uniformly distributed in the mixed data stream. In some cases, it may be useful to set a minimum size for the chunks or groupings of data. In the example above, the chunks are either 1 MB or 9 MB. If the chunk size is too small, a deduplication server may not be able to discern commonalties in the data and, as a result, all of the data in the data stream may, incorrectly, appear to be unique to the deduplication server.

In the example of FIG. 3, the output data stream from the mixer 308 reflects the application of a uniform mixing process to the input data streams. Particularly, the output data stream is of the form: 2 parts (AB—from incompressible stream), followed by 1 part (X—from compressible stream), followed by 2 blocks (CD—from incompressible stream), followed by 1 part (X—from compressible stream), followed by 2 parts (EF from incompressible stream), followed by 1 block (X—from compressible stream) . . . and so forth.

Another method of mixing data streams is to mix the data randomly. In this approach to mixing data streams, the chunk sizes are random. In contrast, in the preceding example, the chunk sizes are not random but are either 1 MB or 9 MB. For example, chunk sizes may be selected as 100K, 75K, 125K . . . . In this case, the stream size of the mixed stream may be specified, such as 100 GB for example. As well, a minimum and/or maximum chunk size may be specified, and random chunk sizes within those bounds may be specified. With reference to the foregoing example, a minimum chunk size of 50K may be specified and/or a maximum chunk size of 150K may be specified. As noted, the minimum chunk size may help to ensure that the granularity of the mixed stream is not so fine that a deduplication server would fail to recognize common data in the mixed stream.

Still another approach to mixing, or merging, multiple data streams involves a normalized mixing of the data from the constituent data streams. In a data stream exhibiting normalized mixing, the data chunks may be arranged thus: unique data; mixed data; unique data. Thus, in a data stream with normalized mixing, the mixed data is distributed in a particular portion, or portions, of the data stream.

Yet another approach to mixing or merging multiple data streams involves a clustered mixing of the data in the data stream. In particular, the mixed data stream may be configured such that the data stream includes portions where data of the constituent streams is not mixed together, and the data stream includes other portions where data of the constituent data streams is mixed together.

It is noted that multiple different mixing techniques may be employed in connection with a particular mixed data stream. Thus, the techniques noted above are presented by way of example only, and still other techniques can be defined and implemented that employ two or more mixing processes to create a mixed data stream.

F. Aspects of Some Example Methods

With reference now to FIG. 5, details are provided concerning aspects of example methods for mixing two or more data streams, where one example of such a method is denoted generally at 500. The method 500 may be performed by and/or at the direction of a mixer, examples of which are disclosed herein. Some parts of the method 500 may be performed by other entities, such as a test platform for example. In general however, the functional allocation indicated in FIG. 5 is provided only by way of example and, in other embodiments, the functions disclosed in FIG. 5 may be allocated in various other ways.

The method 500 may begin at 502 when multiple data streams 2 . . . n, where n is ≥2, are received at a mixer. One or more of the data streams may be received from a data generator. As well, one or more of the data streams may be received from an entity specifically configured to generate data streams. In some cases, two or more of the data streams are received from a common entity, while in other cases, two or more of the data streams are received from different respective entities. Each of the received data streams may have respective compressibility characteristics.

After, or before, receipt of the ‘n’ data streams 502, the mixer may also receive inputs in the form of one or more merging parameters 504 that are usable by the mixer to create a mixed data stream having particular characteristics. Such characteristics include, for example, compressibility and commonality. The merging parameters 504 may be received from a user by way of a UI or API for example. In some embodiments, the mixer may affirmatively access a library, for example, and retrieve one or more of the merging parameters.

Using the merging parameters, the mixer is then able to merge 506 the received data streams to create a mixed data stream having characteristics specified by the merging parameters. The data streams may be merged together 506 in any of a variety of ways. For example, the mixer may employ a uniform, random, normalized, or clustered mixing process, or a combination of these, to generate 506 the output data stream.

The mixed data stream can then be output 508 by the mixer. The mixed data stream possesses the compressibility characteristics specified by the merge parameters. The mixer may output 508 the mixed data stream to any of a variety of recipients. In some cases, the mixed data stream may be stored. Additionally, or alternatively, the mixed data stream may be output to 508, and received by 510 a test platform.

The test platform may use the data stream as a basis for performing testing operations 512. The testing operations 512 may involve, for example, providing the data stream to an application and/or hardware, and then observing and recording the response of the application and/or hardware to the data stream. In at least some embodiments, the data stream mimics, or duplicates, real world conditions. In this way, personnel, such as developers, are able to observe the response of an application, for example, to the data. The response of the application and/or hardware may be stored in some embodiments. As well, simulated streams according to embodiments of the invention may be used by customers to test the effectiveness of a dedupe solution that the customer is considering to purchase, since the customer may not want to send their real data to the new platform under consideration either for security concerns or for the concern related to breaking their normal operating environment.

The data stream and/or the response information may then be analyzed 514. Among other things, such analysis 514 may involve identifying any problems with the operation of the application and/or hardware to which the data stream was supplied during testing 512. The analysis 514 may also include identifying and implementing one or more corrective actions to resolve the problems that were identified during testing 512.

In this way, embodiments of the invention enable testing of applications and other software, as well as hardware, for example, during a development process so as to help ensure that the applications, software, and hardware, will operate as expected. This may reduce, or eliminate, one or more problems that would otherwise be experienced by a purchaser and/or user of the applications, hardware, and software. Further, because mixed data streams generated according to embodiments of the invention are highly configurable in terms of their compressibility and commonality, at least, such mixed data streams can be generated to suit a variety of conditions and scenarios. Various other advantages of example embodiments of the invention will be apparent from the present disclosure.

G. Example Computing Devices and Associated Media

The embodiments disclosed herein may include the use of a special purpose or general-purpose computer including various computer hardware or software modules, as discussed in greater detail below. A computer may include a processor and computer storage media carrying instructions that, when executed by the processor and/or caused to be executed by the processor, perform any one or more of the methods disclosed herein.

As indicated above, embodiments within the scope of the present invention also include computer storage media, which are physical media for carrying or having computer-executable instructions or data structures stored thereon. Such computer storage media can be any available physical media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer.

By way of example, and not limitation, such computer storage media can comprise hardware storage such as solid state disk/device (SSD), RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM, flash memory, phase-change memory (“PCM”), or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other hardware storage devices which can be used to store program code in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures, which can be accessed and executed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer system to implement the disclosed functionality of the invention. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer storage media. Such media are also examples of non-transitory storage media, and non-transitory storage media also embraces cloud-based storage systems and structures, although the scope of the invention is not limited to these examples of non-transitory storage media.

Computer-executable instructions comprise, for example, instructions and data which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions. Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts disclosed herein are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

As used herein, the term ‘module’ or ‘component’ can refer to software objects or routines that execute on the computing system. The different components, modules, engines, and services described herein may be implemented as objects or processes that execute on the computing system, for example, as separate threads. While the system and methods described herein can be implemented in software, implementations in hardware or a combination of software and hardware are also possible and contemplated. In the present disclosure, a ‘computing entity’ may be any computing system as previously defined herein, or any module or combination of modules running on a computing system.

In at least some instances, a hardware processor is provided that is operable to carry out executable instructions for performing a method or process, such as the methods and processes disclosed herein. The hardware processor may or may not comprise an element of other hardware, such as the computing devices and systems disclosed herein.

In terms of computing environments, embodiments of the invention can be performed in client-server environments, whether network or local environments, or in any other suitable environment. Suitable operating environments for at least some embodiments of the invention include cloud computing environments where one or more of a client, server, or other machine may reside and operate in a cloud environment.

The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: receiving a mixed data stream that was generated using a first data stream and a second data stream, the mixed data stream having a compressibility of N, where N is a compressibility merging parameter, and the mixed data stream has a compressibility that is between a compressibility of the first data stream and a compressibility of the second data stream; providing the mixed data stream as an input to an application and/or to hardware; recording a response of the application and/or of the hardware to the mixed data stream input; and analyzing the response of the application and/or of the hardware to the mixed data stream input.
 2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the mixed data stream is provided to the application, and the application is a data deduplication application.
 3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein analyzing the response of the application and/or of the hardware comprises identifying any problems with the operation of the application and/or of the hardware.
 4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein analyzing the response of the application and/or of the hardware comprises identifying and implementing a corrective action associated with an identified problem.
 5. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising modifying the application and/or the hardware based on an outcome of the analyzing.
 6. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising modifying the compressibility N of the mixed data stream.
 7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the mixed data stream was generated based in part on a seed, and one of the first data stream and the second data stream is incompressible.
 8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the mixed data stream has a particular commonality factor (CF) with respect to the first data stream and the second data stream.
 9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the mixed data stream comprises an interleaving of data of the first data stream with data of the second data stream.
 10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein data in the mixed data stream embodies any one or more of the following mixes of data of the first data stream and data of the second data stream: a uniform mix; a random mix; a clustered mix; or, a normalized mix.
 11. A non-transitory storage medium having stored therein computer-executable instructions which are executable by one or more hardware processors to perform operations comprising: receiving a mixed data stream that was generated using a first data stream and a second data stream, the mixed data stream having a compressibility of N, where N is a compressibility merging parameter, and the mixed data stream has a compressibility that is between a compressibility of the first data stream and a compressibility of the second data stream; providing the mixed data stream as an input to an application and/or to hardware; recording a response of the application and/or of the hardware to the mixed data stream input; and analyzing the response of the application and/or of the hardware to the mixed data stream input.
 12. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the mixed data stream is provided to the application, and the application is a data deduplication application.
 13. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 11, wherein analyzing the response of the application and/or of the hardware comprises identifying any problems with the operation of the application and/or of the hardware.
 14. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 13, wherein analyzing the response of the application and/or of the hardware comprises identifying and implementing a corrective action associated with an identified problem.
 15. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise modifying the application and/or the hardware based on an outcome of the analyzing.
 16. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise modifying the compressibility N of the mixed data stream.
 17. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the mixed data stream was generated based in part on a seed, and one of the first data stream and the second data stream is incompressible.
 18. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the mixed data stream has a particular commonality factor (CF) with respect to the first data stream and the second data stream.
 19. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the mixed data stream comprises an interleaving of data of the first data stream with data of the second data stream.
 20. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 11, wherein data in the mixed data stream embodies any one or more of the following mixes of data of the first data stream and data of the second data stream: a uniform mix; a random mix; a clustered mix; or, a normalized mix. 